Advancing Sustainable Agriculture with Mobile Fruit Processing: A Feasibility Study on Upcycling Underutilized Produce in Georgia

Commodities

Practices

This project proposes a feasibility study to evaluate a mobile processing unit as a regionally appropriate, economically viable solution for upcycling underutilized produce, especially blueberries, peaches, watermelons, and citrus, into value-added products such as juice and purée. As the third-largest producer of fresh fruits and vegetables in the United States, Georgia experiences significant post-harvest loss due to stringent market standards and limited regional processing infrastructure. To address this, this study will assess feasibility through three key components: 1) multi-source operational data collection to support modeling and analysis, 2) techno-economic analysis (TEA) under various deployment scenarios, and 3) life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify environmental performance. Building on insights gleaned from an EU-based project that demonstrated the environmental impact reduction potential of mobile food processing, this study extends that framework by integrating techno-economic analysis and data collection specific to Georgia's fruit industry, with a broader focus on multiple fruit types. The expected outcome is a validated analytical framework, including economic and environmental models, that will inform future development, market creation, and replication throughout the Southeast.

Objective 1: Collect relevant operational and logistical data from multiple sources to support system modeling and analysis.

Objective 2: Conduct a techno-economic analysis (TEA) of the mobile processing unit, incorporating temporospatial data to evaluate optimal deployment scenarios.

Objective 3: Perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the mobile processing unit under multiple deployment scenarios.